The project supported 15 journalists from different media outlets to enhance their skills for reporting on North Macedonia’s EU accession process.
The group, selected through a public call, attended a one day training in Skopje, and will have the chance to travel to Brussels to attend the explanatory screening sessions and to meet with high level EU officials to discuss topics related to importance of media in covering the EU accession process.
The main objective of the training for journalists was to strengthen the capacity of the media related to reporting on the EU accession process and to emphasize the importance of this process for the citizens through balanced informing, detailed coverage of the process and sharing relevant and high-quality information with the public.
At the moment, the EU integration is the biggest Macedonian project that should be a success story. It is necessary to mobilize the entire society around this task, recognize the importance and weight of the EU integration phase we are entering and most importantly, bring the negotiation process closer to the public, said the Deputy Prime Minister for EU affairs and Chief Negotiator with the EU, Bojan Marichik when opening the training.
The role of media and journalists are of key importance in public information and awareness raising. This has significant importance for the realistic presentation of the challenges and opportunities for North Macedonia within the EU accession process. As a long standing supported of the media in the country, the Head of Development Cooperation in the Embassy of Sweden in North Macedonia, Mikael Atterhög, was pleased to greet the media and the journalists discussing about the role and importance of media for EU integration process.
The state secretary in the Secretariat for European Affairs and deputy chief negotiator with the EU, Drita Abdiu-Khalili, said that the path to full membership in the EU is quite complex and as such requires a lot of effort, commitment, resources, but also wider cohesion between all social actors, such as the media, the civil sector, the academic community, the business community, etc.
We are all equal on this path and everyone’s contribution is needed to attain the goal that we as a country have set, and that is North Macedonia’s full membership in the EY by 2030, said Drita Abdiu Halili.
The training in Skopje provided details on the implementation of the screening process, the practical implementation of the negotiation process presented by Dragan Tilev and Hristina Koneska Beroska from the Secretariat for European Affairs as the main body for coordination of the EU accession process in North Macedonia. The training also offered regional insights and comparative experiences of the countries in the region presented by experts with practical experience in conducting the negotiation process in Croatia and Serbia. As part of this training cycle, the journalists will also attend the explanatory screening sessions for Chapter 21 - Trans-European networks, Chapter 14 - Transport policy and Chapter 27 - Environment from 14-18 March in Brussels.
